Jonathan Calder

"Robert Jenrick owns a property with an imperial history"

Is it the Death Star?

Kevin Hollinrake, [neither had I] who is apparently Tory Chair, doubles down on hating urban areas. Waiting for first media person to ask specifically or speculate which communities are exempt from these disparaging and highly selective strictures

Sharia law and a nation where 80% are migrants, sounds like Reform. @lordbonkers.bsky.social

An article for Central Bylines: Ed Davey and his Liberal Democrats march on Bournemouth I've written an article for Central Bylines looking at the prospects for the Liberal Democrats as the new political season begins. Despite ...

Despite the rather triumphalist headline - Ed Davey and his Liberal Democrats march on Bournemouth - I've done my best to be objective.

A fab six exposure image of a Curlew flapping across the sky by
@rxnature.bsky.social

Four parties within a 5 point swing of first place and five parties on 12% plus.

This would be pure chaos under first past the post.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey picks pumpkins at Cairnie Fruit Farm... Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey picks pumpkins at Cairnie Fruit Farm with carers from Fife Young Carers alongside local MP Wendy Chamberlain and MSP Willie Rennie on October 07, 2025 in Cupar,...

Liberal England... A gentler form of politics: Ed Davey among the pumpkins liberalengland.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-ge...

Previewing the Yateley West, Hart by-election of Wednesday 8th October 2025 "All the right votes, but not necessarily in the right order"

It's by-election WEDNESDAY!
- 1 poll today, with the Liberal Democrats defending a safe seat on the northern border of Hampshire
Andrew's Previews for @britainelects.com tells all:

The Rees Moggs will still do History degrees. The Johnsons will still do Classics.
Sadly, the Wilsons from South Bank in Middlesbrough won't get the intellectual stimulation of studying a subject of interest for a degree.

The Joy of Six 1419 "Make no mistake: Raise the Colours and Unite the Kingdom, which drew more than 100,000 protesters to London last month, want the same thing...

the global far-right is brainwashing a town near you; libraries are palaces for the people that must be defended; holding Putin's propagandists to account; support for councillors is vital; Jilly Cooper; G&G at the Hayward Gallery

Meanwhile in Russia…

“"Breeding": Wild boars are harassing residents of St. Petersburg and its suburbs.”

www.mk.ru/social/2025/...

Pharmacies facing angry patients over Covid jab confusion Up to half of patients coming to some pharmacies are being turned away because they are not eligible.

Perception: "I'm disappointed. It feels like a cost-cutting exercise", a 71 year old

Reality: It is a cost-cutting exercise.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

English footballer Clive Wilson of Chelsea in action during a First... English footballer Clive Wilson of Chelsea in action during a First Division match against Spurs, 16th September 1989.

Liberal England: "And Wilson plays a pass of geometric precision"

Clive Wilson, who played on the left side of midfield in the late Eighties, was christened Euclid Aklana Wilson. liberalengland.blogspot.com/2025/10/and-...

Google AI blocks Trump dementia query summaries Google has blocked its AI-powered search tools from providing summarized answers for queries regarding Donald Trump’s mental acuity. This action

Google has blocked its AI-powered search tools from providing summarized answers for queries regarding Donald Trump’s mental acuity. This action contrasts with the platform’s handling of similar searches involving President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama.
dataconomy.com/2025/10/01/g...

a man is standing in front of a christmas tree with the words `` it 's charles dickens '' . ALT: a man is standing in front of a christmas tree with the words `` it 's charles dickens '' .

Did you know that Charles Dickens and Poe met twice in America? We dont know exactly what they discussed other than topics alluded to in their correspondences: publishing, fame, ravens (really!). IFFFFF, I was to re-create a version of that meeting for stage, what would an audience want to see?

A reminder that this week the Conservatives announced they want a “British ICE”

An old cast metal boundary sign for the pre-1974 East Riding of Yorkshire seen in Hull’s great Streetlife Museum. White with black cast lettering and to the left the old County coat of arms

A fine pre-1974 County boundary sign for the old East Riding of Yorkshire County Council - seen in Hull’s wonderful Streetlife Museum. @lccmunicipal.bsky.social @showmeasign.online #yorkshire #hull

Badenoch wants to close “rip off’ degrees such as English. One minute they are wrapping themselves in the Union Jack, the next minute they are wanting to stop the study of our language and literature. Ignorant philistines

Heseltine is basically the only British politician alive who could have *any* memory of the 1930s so this is hardly a surprise

30 telecoms masts AND ~15 various electrical grid units have been sabotaged last months in south-east Sweden.

The sabotages are concentrated along highway E22, ie one of the main routes needed to reinforce Gotland in case of conflict. Ports are along this route, with the main one in the middle.

Fascinating marker of how far the Tory target voter has shifted from ‘middle class parents wanting their kids to go to uni’ to ‘old people who didn’t go and don’t see what anyone else should either’. (Obv there’s a solid case for apprenticeships, but not convinced that’s what this is about)

Jenrick complains that there are immigration judges (presumably he means the part-time ones) who spend the rest of their time representing immigrants.

Wait until someone tells him about Recorders (part-time Crown Court judges) who spend the rest of their time defending the accused.

River Wye pollution prompts UK's largest environmental lawsuit Livestock and water companies are accused of “extensive” pollution in the Wye, Lugg and Usk rivers.

River Wye pollution prompts UK's largest environmental lawsuit

Write a guest post for Liberal England The new political season is well underway, so why not have your say by writing a guest post for Liberal England? I'm happy to entertain a wi...

Write a guest post for Liberal England

Bath car arson attack leads to increased patrols around The Oval Patrols are increased in the part of the city where the vehicle was torched.

BBC article in which the stated time of an arson attack in Bath is an hour after the current time.

Is this the deep state?!

Five Conservative councillors in Kent defect to Reform UK Reform UK welcomes one councillor from Medway Council and four from Gravesham Borough Council.

Having first helped manage defections in the 90s, I'm not going to deny the political momentum they generate. However, there is a curiosity about Reform absorbing in large volume all the politicos from a party they say is crap. At some point they basically become them. 🤷🏻‍♂️

www.bbc.com/news/article...

English footballer Clive Wilson of Chelsea in action during a First... English footballer Clive Wilson of Chelsea in action during a First Division match against Spurs, 16th September 1989.

Liberal England: "And Wilson plays a pass of geometric precision"

Clive Wilson, who played on the left side of midfield in the late Eighties, was christened Euclid Aklana Wilson. liberalengland.blogspot.com/2025/10/and-...

I wonder if there’ll ever come a point when a big block of centre-left social-liberals in the Labour Party (the Miliband types) carve off to the Lib Dems.

The electoral map doesn’t favour that but if Labour popularity falls far enough, it’s not impossible.

LDs need to avoid rightward drift.

The Conservatives are in self destruct mode. Councillors leaving for Reform (Turquoise Tories - it's just more of the same) and Shadow opposition MPs speaking like this. Not so many years ago they would have been fired for such a thing. Shame on them.